Mercantilism: Whoever has the most gold at the end, wins.
"They're comin' to America." -- Neil Diamond
Coordinating policy for the general welfare is one thing; colluding to benefit one or a few is quite another. The same principle applies to nations as to individuals and firms.
Competition within the capitalist system is generally good, but efforts to gain complete advantage in all things is counterproductive. Not only is it not possible, but any attempt, deliberate or otherwise, to reduce others to beggary leads only to poverty, resentment and, eventually, conflict.
Suppression may work for a time, even for a century or more, but resentment builds, blocking ambition and limiting self-reliance.
Resentment festers in poverty until, like a ripening cyst, it infects the body politic and explodes. Prevention, therefore, is more valuable than cure. Nourishing the body politic, whether that of a nation or the world, eases the strain and stress of festering poverty and prevents infectious violence.
Dealing with this issue calls for cooperation and coordination of policies, not only within nations but among nations. Otherwise, a set of policies that benefits one nation could have a spillover effect and harm others.
This is not a new problem. In the early years of capitalism, the concept of mercantilism dominated, and nations struggled to gain market advantage in everything, to enrich themselves even if it meant reducing others to poverty. But that didn't matter. The goal was to win.
A worthy goal, but not if the loser goes hungry and feels defeated. Resentment then builds, like an infectious disease.
Symptoms of stress are easily found in unemployment numbers and immigration policies, as well as national policies designed to foster growth in
one country at the expense of others.
That's why experts in world economics at the International Monetary Fund are calling for a concerted, coordinated policy action "to reduce risks to global growth."
Throughout America, the unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in July, even though an estimated 162,000 new jobs were added in July. The total number of people out of work is in the millions. On a state level, Nevada reported the highest unemployment in June, 9.6 percent, followed by Illinois and Mississippi, at 9.2 percent and 9.0 percent respectively, the government survey said.
The lowest jobless rate in June was in North Dakota, at 3.1 percent.
In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an island whose residents all have U.S. citizenship, the unemployment rate was 13.8 percent, with jobless rates in metropolitan areas of the island ranging from a low of 12.5 percent to 20.1 percent.
In Canada, 7.1 percent of the labor force were unemployed in June, unchanged from May. That's a drop from 8.5 percent during the worst of the Great Recession, but "the share of the unemployed who have been jobless for a year or longer has nearly doubled since the beginning of the recession," said the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and government needs to act to deal with this issue.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Spain will stay above 25 percent for another five years, according to a survey by the International Monetary Fund. And the unemployment rate in the 17 countries that use the euro as a common currency is 12.1 percent.
In Britain, the unemployment rate has been at 7.8 percent for months, and in Germany and France, those without jobs comprise 5.4 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively. Italy posted 12.1 percent, Greece 26.9 percent, and Ireland 13.5 percent.
The official unemployment rate in Mexico was listed as 5.09 percent in June, but some question the validity of that figure. In any case, violence in Mexico is often more than enough to send people away, especially from large urban areas. Nationally, the homicide rate is 22 per 100,000 population, according to official statistics, but it's far larger -- 77 per 100,000 -- in the northern border state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located, and the Pacific coastal state of Guerrero, home to Acapulco.
Some consolation, that it's safer in Chicago.
In the U.S., the national homicide rate in 2011 was 4.7 per 100,000 people, according to FBI records. In some of the nation's largest cities, the murder rate is far higher. In Chicago, it was 15.9; in New Orleans, 57.6 and Detroit, 48.2. Comparatively, some would say Chicago is a safer city than Ciudad Juarez or Acapulco. That, however, is small comfort to the victims and their families. In Chicago last year, there were 511 homicides, down from the record year of 1974, when 970 murders were committed.
Many European nations have been sending people to America for generations in search of jobs, and with such a differential in unemployment rates, that's not likely to change.
People come to America because this is where the jobs are. They may not be great jobs, or prestigious jobs, but they are jobs, often the kinds of jobs that native-born American youth don't want and will not take. Others do want them, and will take them.
Bottom line conclusion: It will take coordinated efforts by officials in several countries to solve problems and build economies to benefit everyone.
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